What Happened to Janet Abaroa?

A natural athlete, Christiansen played soccer at Southern Virginia University. She and Raven Abaroa, both then 19, met at the university in 1998.

Courtesy Britney Romito

Growing up in a Mormon family, Janet Christiansen, in a white dress at far right, was the seventh of 10 siblings. Her sister, Dena Kendall, told ABC News' "20/20" that Christiansen was a "very sweet spirit, loving, kind."

Courtesy Dena Kendall

A natural athlete, Christiansen played soccer at Southern Virginia University. She and Raven Abaroa, both then 19, met at the university in 1998.

Courtesy Britney Romito

Christiansen already had a boyfriend, but Abaroa swept her off her feet. "She was beautiful, attractive ... I just felt so much comfort when I was with her," Abaroa said in an interview with the TV show "NC Wanted" in 2007.

Courtesy Britney Romito

In August 2000, two years after they met, the couple married at a Mormon Temple in Washington, D.C., and began their life together in southeastern Virginia.

Courtesy Krista Christiansen

From the outside, the newlyweds seemed to have the perfect life. "[Raven Abaroa] was young, newly married, had bought their first home, had a couple nice cars and a motorcycle," family friend Tim Dowd told ABC News' "20/20." A new job in sales took the couple to Durham, N.C., but Janet Abaroa confided to her sisters that the marriage was in trouble.

Courtesy Krista Christiansen

After Raven Abaroa received some advice from close friends, the young couple was able to work things out. On Oct. 17, 2004, his wife gave birth to son Kaiden, and the marriage appeared to be on the mend.

Courtesy Tim Dowd

On April 26, 2005, Raven Abaroa said he returned home from playing soccer at 10:45 p.m. to make a horrifying discovery: His wife was dead. "She's been shot or something. There's blood everywhere," he told a 911 dispatcher. Kaiden was left unharmed in another room.

Courtesy Kent Kendall

Shortly after his wife's death, Raven Abaroa moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, with his 6-month-old son, Kaiden. There, he met Vanessa Pond, a single mother, whose daughter was in the same day care facility as Kaiden. Abaroa asked Pond to marry him nearly three years after the death of his first wife.

Courtesy Vanessa Pond

Pond and Abaroa later separated. Pond claimed that he was emotionally abusive and went public with her fears that he might somehow have been involved in his first wife's death. Abaroa was later charged in his wife's murder and extradited back to North Carolina. After Janet Abaroa's body was exhumed and additional evidence was gathered, prosecutors took Raven Abaroa's case to trial.

Courtesy Krista Christiansen

More than eight years after Janet Abaroa's death, the judge declared a mistrial after the jury could not come up with a verdict. In March 2014, just days before a new trial, Raven Abaroa took an Alford plea, acknowledging there was evidence to convict him but not admitting guilt. "I was shocked," Vanessa Pond told ABC News' "20/20." "More than that, I was shocked at what the plea deal turned out to be."

ABC News

Raven Abaroa was a convicted felon, guilty of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to between 95 and 123 months in prison -- having already served four years. "I don't think it's worth risking the possibility of spending the rest of my life in prison for something I didn't do," Raven Abaroa said after he was sentenced. "I didn't kill my wife."